Month: February 2017

I will never forget the day I first saw a Great Grey Shrike. I was kept from attending school due to a virus, a bonus day to catch up on some birding from the lounge window! Suddenly the Greenfinch flock on the lawn scattered. Well, all except one unfortunate individual which was pinned down under a Great Grey Shrike. This was and still is a very uncommon garden bird, but was one of those moments which reinforced my life long passion for observing birds. Today I saw another at Acaster Malbis near York. A Great Grey Shrike is a true winter delight, cloaked in bold, crisp white, black and soft grey plumage. Ever watchful for prey, I did not have to wait long to see the shrike pounce on a vole. It carried the vole off, probably to impale it on a thorn. Shrikes do this to store food, hanging their prey on the the thorns as a butcher hangs meat on a hook, hence their other name butcher bird.

I paint in watercolour and oil and often swap from one media to the other in a single day. Here are two recent pieces, painted within 24 hours, which show two extremes of my painting range. The first is from sketches of Sansdend, near Whitby on a stormy day. It is an oil painted with palette knife on canvas and measures 30x30cm. The second painting is a fast pencil and watercolour sketch of an Eastern Black Redstart seen yesterday at Skinningrove, North Yorkshire. Measuring 30x27cm this is a quick reaction to a lively bird. This stunning looking Redstart is from the Eastern race and breeds in Central Asia. It has spent the whole winter feeding underneath and around a small area of boulders near the jetty at Skinningrove. Both paintings are now available to buy. Please email me for further details jonathan@pomroy.plus.com